Stephen Carter, the novelist and Yale law professor, “was never a neoconservative, except in the sense that some liberals really didn’t like him. His nonfiction has made him a fair number of enemies, but, he says, he didn’t mind because he could research and footnote everything. ‘With fiction I don’t have that protection. Part of what makes fiction more nerve-racking for me is that I make up the story. So what a lot of writers see as the freedom of fiction I see as the risk.'”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Investigative Report: What Is It About “H.S. Musical”?
“As anyone who has been within shrieking distance of a sixth grader during the past year knows, ‘High School Musical’ is more than a movie. It’s a crucial way station on the developmental road between ‘Powerpuff Girls’ and ‘Mean Girls.'”
Mozart On The Inside, Pillars Of Light On The Outside
As the Mostly Mozart Festival takes place inside Lincoln Center, a multimedia installation on the exterior of Avery Fisher Hall attracts nighttime audiences outside. “Standing with concertgoers examining the 12-foot-tall light boxes in the portico, the word you hear most often is ‘interesting.’ … The first light box takes its inspiration from a story about Mozart buying a pet starling, supposedly after hearing it sing a musical theme he had written.”
Beauty And The Baseball (Oh, Wait, No, It’s Softball…)
“One of the New York theater world’s annual rites of summer — the Broadway Show League , in which softball teams representing Broadway and Off Broadway productions trade their costumes for cleats — will draw to a close on Thursday afternoon with a championship game in the Heckscher ball fields in Central Park. This final battle, after an 18-week season, will pit a team made up of representatives from ‘Wicked’ and ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ against the winner of that morning’s all-Disney matchup between ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast.'”
“American Idol” Musical Bites The Dust On Broadway
“A Broadway show which was based on the hit reality TV programme American Idol has closed after its first official night on stage in New York. Idol: The Musical, which was dubbed a ‘satirical musical comedy’, was originally previewed in July. By the end of the month the entire cast had been replaced without explanation and fresh previews began on 1 August.”
New Audiences, It Turns Out, Include Avatars
“In the internet virtual world Second Life, you can buy property, gamble and go to lectures. You can attend film festivals, go to gigs and buy art. And next month, a British orchestra will stage the first full-scale symphonic concert on the site. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has created a virtual, 3-D version of its concert hall and on September 14 users of the website will be able to attend a concert led by the orchestra’s chief conductor, Vasily Petrenko.”
Threatened, A New-Brutalist Building Needs Protection
“Of all the arguments for designating Baltimore’s Morris A. Mechanic Theatre a city landmark, one of the strongest comes from the owner itself. Others have reasoned that the 1967 building is a laudable symbol of its times, an inspired work of modern design by an architect of international stature,” John M. Johansen. “But the owner has filed plans with the city indicating what it might do to the vacant building in Charles Center if it’s not protected by landmark status and, in doing so, it demonstrated exactly why it needs to be protected.”
French Publisher Won’t Sue Over Teen’s Translation
“The French publishers of the Harry Potter books said Monday they are not seeking damages from a 16-year-old who allegedly posted an unauthorized translation of the final book in the series online. … The case is still under preliminary investigation by the French judicial police, and it is up to investigators to decide whether to try to bring the case to trial.”
U.S. Sends Rat To France. Cultural Diplomacy Ensues.
“In barely two weeks, a rat has managed to seduce the French and convince them that perhaps not all Americans are gastronomic louts, and that there might be hope yet for bridging the transatlantic cultural divide. ‘Ratatouille,’ the animated Hollywood movie starring a rat who overcomes all odds to become a chef in a venerable Paris restaurant, is defying stiff odds itself. Its Aug. 1 premiere in France drew the fourth-highest opening day attendance in French movie history.”
A German In Paris Is Named To Getty Research Post
“Thomas W. Gaehtgens, an internationally recognized scholar who is director of the German Center for the History of Art in Paris, will be the new leader of the Getty Research Institute, sources close to the Getty say. His appointment, expected to be announced today, will end a 10-month search for a successor to Thomas Crow, who left the prestigious position to chair the department of modern art history at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.”